This exhibition was in the basement of the University library for the first few months of 2020. It featured items related to the history of sound recording and oral history in Leicestershire & Rutland from the 1950s to the present. The links below follow on from items mentioned in the video.
Early sound recordings
The British Library Sounds website features some of the earliest sound recordings. Click here to listen to them.
The Leicester Tape Club
Mark Vernon has created radio programmes from the archives of the Leicester Tape Club. Click here to have a listen to them and look at memorabilia.
BBC Radio Leicester
The first broadcast from BBC Radio Leicester can be heard on the Radio Leicester section of the Leicester Oral History Trail. The brief call sign/signature tune was composed by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
You can listen to the call sign here.
Read about the University of Leicester’s long history of collaboration with Radio Leicester.
The Leicester Oral History Archive
This started in the early 1980s and recorded hundreds of oral histories with local people. You can hear most of these at Special Collections online here.
The Mantle Oral History project
Based in Coalville, this project produced more than 200 recordings as well as a number of books. A video of Bardon village made at the time of Mantle’s book ‘Marking Time: Voices from Bardon’ is available on YouTube.
The East Midlands Oral History Archive
A partnership between the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester, Leicester City Council & Leicestershire County Council, the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA) digitised and catalogued all the recordings created up to the early 2000s. It also took in the reel to reel tape archive of Radio Leicester. These are some of the recordings available:
A Post War History of Leicester 1945-62
Wildlife Recordings
Phil Rudkin’s recording of a robin’s ‘seee’ alarm call
Unlocking Our Sound Heritage
The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project is a partnership project led by the British Library, with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Click here to find put more about us on our webpage.
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